The Best of Daytime 1972-1982 Issue #5
Celebrating the Best Year in soap History
1981 edition
Victoria Wyndham puts a touch of Class into everything she does. No matter how busy she is playing Rachel Cory on Another World, her children matter more.
She plans family holidays as carefully as a director might plan a Broadway opening. She's the kind of mother who'll dress up in a costume on Halloween in full make-up, fright wig and all, just to be part of her children's fun. Her sons Darian and Christian, never suspect a thing (or if the do, they don't let on) when Vicky jumps out at them from behind a bush, yelling "Trick or treat!" Then, she'll dash home, strip off her wicked witch mask and costume, just in time to greet the boys at the doorstep.
When the boys got a portable tape recorder as a Christmas gift, Vicky even agreed to guest star on a pretend radio show they decided to write and tape. But when they asked her to make a return appearance, she declined telling them, "You're the stars. I was only doing a bit part."
Vicky believes in giving her children a sense of responsibility, so ten-year-old Darian and nine-year-old Christian have regular chores around the family's suburban house. They help take care of the horses that Vicky keeps stabled on the property. They lend a hand in the kitchen, too, and a favorite mother-son pastime is baking cookies.
Despite her heavy schedule, Vicky still adores cooking. She likes to help prepare most of the food - from hors d' oeuvres to desert - and sets an elegant table with crystal and fresh flowers.
Whenever Vicky has to travel (she frequently guest stars at soap opera festivals around the country), she always sets time aside to souvenir-shop for her kids. In Halifax, Nova Scotia, she bought them matching T-shirts; and in a little gift shop in the Canadian Rockies, she found miniature fur animals to bring home to the boys. Worried that the stuffed animals might get damaged on the return flight, Vicky carefully wrapped them in newspaper and stuck them way at the bottom of her boots as a double cushion against jolts.
Although Vicky loves doing soap festivals - traveling to Dallas, Nashville, Los Angeles and Calgary, Canada - she'll never accept an out-of-town engagement when her kids are due to open in a school play. Then, she's front row center cheering them on.
Victoria optioned the stage rights to the 1948 motion picture, The Red Shoes, which she hopes to turn into a musical production. She's writing part of the script and looking for star talent to head up the cast. "It keeps me on my toes," she says, "but she loves every minute of it."
Lately, she finds herself traveling more and more. She has a little camera that she shoots rolls and rolls of film with on her soap festival tours. An avid sightseer, between festival shows in Nashville, Vicky headed for the Hermitage Museum (Andrew Jackson's home); in the Canadian Rockies, she spent an afternoon viewing Lake Louise; and in Los Angeles she signed up for the Universal Studio bus tour, just like any Hollywood fan.
She loves meeting and greeting her public and brings a special warmth to all her personal appearances. In Halifax, she has the most poignant encounter of all, when a blind man, who follows Another World devotedly, asked to come up on stage and meet her. Vicky could hardly hold back the tears as he touched her face with his fingertips.
She may be a witch on Halloween, but she's really an angel at heart.